2013 Game 13 Recap: Stars dominate 3rd period, Win 4-1

Final

Dallas Stars 4 – Edmonton Oilers 1

The Positives:

Kari Lehtonen

Always Kari Lehtonen

If it hasn't sunk in by now, Kari Lehtonen was incredible once again last night even with a bad mistake. The one goal that he allowed was one that he should have easily stopped, but he was just a bit slow in reacting to a long shot from Taylor Hall and it zipped past him. Other than that, Lehtonen was downright superhuman en route to stopping 35 of 36 shots. He made more incredible "Holy crap how did he do that?" saves and carried this team through two periods of hockey.

The penalty kill looked good yesterday (mostly because of Kari) as the Stars held a potent Oilers PP without a goal in five chances.

The depth forwards were great yesterday. The third line of Smith-Eakin-Vincour was the most energetic line throughout the game and both Eakin and Smith had golden scoring opportunities. It's only a matter of time before both of them bag their first goals of the year.

Meanwhile, the fourth line scored two goals (Nystrom and Garbutt) and showed just as much fight as the third line. Garbutt in particular had a great game as he tries to prove he shouldn't be a scratch. He was all over the ice and used his energy to negate two icing calls that would have gone against Dallas. His goal was a show of pure toughness, grit and strength and he fought off a defender and crashed the net to score the Stars fourth of the night.

The Stars were working some pretty good luck last night. Their first two goals of the game came off of wild and weird bounces. Brenden Dillon's goal deflected off of a defender, hit the glass behind the net, ricocheted off the glass onto Dubnyk's back and into the net.

The Meh

Dallas had a lot of trouble through the first two periods of this game. The Oilers dominated possession and outshot Dallas 27-18 and probably should have had at least three goals if not for Lehtonen. They looked a bit lethargic, which is weird considering they had three days of rest to get ready for this game. They didn't really get into gear for this game until halfway through the third period.

The Bad

Philip Larsen and Aaron Rome had bad nights yesterday. Both guys looked out of place and just couldn't keep up with the Oilers forwards. They also had trouble trying to get the puck out of their own zone due to the forecheck and Rome took two bad penalties. One of those penalties happened when he got lazy trying to touch up for an icing call and got beat, then compunded his mistake by closing his hand around the puck. Jamie Oleksiak should not be a healthy scratch for the rest of the year.

Scoring Summary

1st Period:

12:59 – Taylor Hall (3)
Assist: Jordan Eberle (6)

2nd Period:

04:23 – Brenden Dillon (2)
Assists: Stephane Robidas (4), Derek Roy (6)

3rd Period:

00:44 – Eric Nystrom (1)
Assist: Vernon Fiddler (2)

15:25 – Jaromir Jagr (4)
Assists: Trevor Daley (1), Jamie Benn (4)

17:17 – Ryan Garbutt (2)
Assist: Vernon Fiddler (3)

Game Stats: